


Sense of loss

by Duke_The_Bounty_Hunter



Series: The Duke and Catherine Chronicles [5]
Category: Original Work, The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 00:38:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17111129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duke_The_Bounty_Hunter/pseuds/Duke_The_Bounty_Hunter
Summary: Catherine, Duke, Tom and Ava face a dilemma.





	Sense of loss

“You’ve been searching for me all this time?” Ava asked, as she sat down to dinner with Duke and Catherine.

“Yes, dear,” said Catherine. “We did. We’ve always loved you.”

“You knew Cynda from before?”

Duke nodded slightly.

Catherine patted Ava’s hand. “Duke’s a man of few words, so don’t worry if he doesn’t say much.”

Ava nodded. Duke was known for being taciturn. In a way, that made him enigmatic because you wouldn’t know what will happen next or what he will say. Also he can make himself look like anyone, which was creepy if you thought you were talking to your friend, but you didn’t know it was Duke in disguise.

After dinner, they watched _Thor: The Dark World_.

“Cynda,” Catherine said, “was from a nearby tribe. She used to visit Robin and me. We shared so many wonderful experiences. She used to be Gwen’s lady in waiting before being replaced. She was jealous of Duke’s love for me. So much sadness and pain. So much bitterness.” For the first time, Catherine and Ava felt sympathy for Cynda. Even Duke.

The next morning, there was a knock on the door. Ava slipped out of bed, put on her red dressing gown, tiptoed out of the room and snuck downstairs. She opened the door to find Tom standing outside.

“Hi!” Ava said, cheerfully.

“Hi,” said Tom. “Is this a bad time?”

“No. No, of course not. Won’t you come in?”

“Um…” Tom didn’t know what to say because Duke was standing behind Ava. “Ask him.”

“Sure,” Duke said. “You can come in.”

Tom stepped inside. He could feel Duke’s eyes on him, even though he wasn’t looking at Duke.

Ava led him into the sitting room, where a blond woman was reading _Jane Eyre_ by Charlotte Bronte.

The woman looked up from her book. “You must be Tom. Catherine, delighted to meet you. And that’s Duke.”

Tom shook their hands. They seemed like genial people.

“Join us for breakfast,” Catherine said. “Ava and you can learn the many mysteries surrounding this world and others.”

Tom had an eager look in his grey eyes. “What kind of mysterious mysteries?”

“You are not the only ones here. There are others.”

“What, like, extra-terrestrials?”

“Kind of.” Catherine pictures of two girls from a shelf. “This is Mimi and Dia. These girls are living locally.”

“Ok.”

At one thirty, Ava, Tom, Catherine and Duke went to a house where Mimi and Dia, the girls from the photos, were staying.

“Hi,” Tom said. “Are you Mimi and Dia?”

Both girls nodded.

“You want to know about the progeny, don’t you?” Mimi, the brunette girl, asked. She wore her hair in plaits.

“Yeah, we do,” said Tom.

“The progeny exists,” said Dia. Her blond hair was in curls.

“Thanks.” Tom, Ava, Catherine and Duke made their way to the clinic. They had reached the front door of the clinic. Tom knocked.

The door was opened by a girl of five. Ava and Tom recognised her.

“Hello,” Catherine said. “Is your sister here?”

“Yes,” said the girl and she went to fetch her sister, who looked identical to her, except that the sister was sixteen. She was a clone. She looked at the newcomers carefully.

“Come in,” the older girl said. “I’m Elaine and this is my sister Karen.” She let them in. She led them through a corridor to a door.

“The door needs a key card to open it,” Ava observed.

“Yeah. I have the key card.” Elaine unzipped her right jacket pocket, got out a key card and swiped it. The door opened and everyone saw there were more girls, all looking identical.

“Dia was right,” Tom said. “You’re clones.”

Elaine nodded. “All we want is to be like everyone else – live our life to the full, without worrying about Zgtozata hunting us down. We want to be free and live our life how we want to.”

“Why does he want to kill you?” Tom asked.

“Because we know how to kill him.” Another sixteen year old girl noticed them. “I’m Justine.”

“How do you kill him?”

“Use a double.” Justine’s attention was on Duke. “Carladonna had curse Zgtozata so he will flee from War or the Bounty Hunter or any guy who looks similar to them.”

“Oh, yeah.” The ten year old called Téa smiled. “He fled during a class. Very undignified.”

“What happened?” asked Tom.

“In form, we were in a group. I was with Venus, Ottilie and Melody. This black smoke came. It asked ‘Where is he?’ No one knew who it was talking about. Williamson walked into the class, where the smoke was at a desk. It saw him, screamed and ran out the room.” Téa laughed.

“Will’s here.” Elaine led the four to another room where they saw a brown haired boy of sixteen sitting in a corner with his knees close to his chest.

“Oh, dear little William O’Connor,” said a voice to him. “I’ve watched you grow up. Twelve years, and you never knew I was there. Little William O’Connor, waiting for his daddy to return. But not this time, William.”

Out of thin air, black smoke materialised.

Noticing Duke, he fled. Tom approached Will. “You ok, mate?”

Will nodded. “I’m ok.”

The next place Elaine suggested to go for information was at Jasmine’s house.

“Do stop by sometime,” Elaine called.

Tom nodded. He, along with the others, journeyed to a mansion.

Jasmine welcomed them in. “You’re here for information, aren’t you?” She gestured to some chairs and everyone sat down.

“Yeah,” Ava said. “We were wondering if anyone else was abducted, other than the children.”

“My sister.” Jasmine showed them a picture. “Natalie.”

“What happened?”

“She was sixteen when she returned in 2000,” Jasmine explained. “Our parents were overjoyed. We hadn’t seen her since she was eleven, but somehow she sent us photos of her birthdays. She told me her adoptive parents were taciturn and how they weren’t known for smiling.”

“Natalie, your sister, was raised by … bounty hunters?” Tom looked at Duke. “Would you remember her?”

“There was someone. She had brown hair and didn’t talk much.”

“Just tell me where she is.”

Duke leaned in close. “She’s alive.”

“What were Cynda’s motives behind the kidnapping?” Ava asked Jasmine.

“She was a friend of Catherine and Ursula and the others. They would visit by the spring and talk. Every day seemed like a paradise, as Melina’s protective barrier kept out the forces of Zgtozata. No one had to worry about an invasion from the enemy.”

“That was before the conspiracy, right?” Tom asked.

Jasmine nodded. “Cynda changed. She fell for Duke when she saw him, but he only had eyes for you so she decided to banish you in order to keep you away…”

“Then when Ava was born, Cynda got her revenge by kidnapping her and raising her to believe she was abandoned,” Tom finished. “Now it makes sense. We’ve got to stop Cynda from wrongdoing.”

A rainbow coloured bear materialised into the room. He wore a purple bow and had a peace sign on his chest.

“Perhaps we can help,” he said.

“How, Peace?” Jasmine asked.

“If those four came with me, I’ll explain everything.”

Catherine, Duke, Tom and Ava nodded slightly.

“Then it’s settled.”

“What do you mean?” Catherine inquired.

“Do you remember the children? Ben, Liam, Sarah?”

“Yes. There were others, including Victor’s brother. He was only nine years old. _Nine_!”

Everyone followed Peace to a picturesque yet remote farm town, like the one from _Herrenvolk_. Many bears identical to Peace came out of their homes to see the newcomers. Two of them approached.

“Who are they?” Catherine asked.

“These two are my brother and sister. The progeny exists. What Dia said was true. The progeny are currently at 45 Heath Hill Road.”

Two other bears came. One was blue and another in different shades of colour, like Peace. Both had the peace sign on their chests. They noticed the newcomers. 

“Meet Peace Symbol bear and the original Peace,” said Peace. “Everyone came from the original. He was the first.” He got out a letter from a post bag. “Oh, and Nimueh wondered if you could have dinner with her at her chateau.”

Later that evening, Tom and Ava went with Catherine and Duke to their destination: the chateau of Nimueh. At the chateau, dinner was lasagne. Bozworth was in the seat next to Tom. Catherine was right. Duke and Bozworth did look similar.

“You alright?” Nimueh asked.

“Yeah.” Tom met her gaze. “Yeah. I’m good.”

“Good.” Nimueh smiled.

The next morning, after staying the night at the chateau, Tom and Ava set off to a fortress that Nimueh told them about. They didn’t know that a man was watching them. He recognised Ava. He heard Tom and Ava talking. He nodded upon hearing Ava’s words, for he knew that it was the daughter of Duke. He sent a wolf to the bridge.

“Where are you two heading?” asked the wolf.

Ava pointed. “That fortress.”

“Allow me to escort you and this young gentleman.”

“Um, ok.”

The wolf led on ahead.

The two teenagers went inside.

Tom tapped her on the shoulder. “Turn around.”

Ava did and recognised the man. She had met him earlier whilst on her quest for Duke and Catherine. “You knew Duke. How?”

“He’s a friend,” the man said. “He saw Lilith for advice . . . about a woman. She told him things like how to make her feel special and other importance of dating.”

“Did this woman happen to be called Catherine?” Tom inquired.

The man nodded slightly.

“Well, thanks,” Tom said. “We should be going.”

“You want to find your sister?” asked a voice.

Tom and Ava turned around.

A teenage boy was leaning in the doorway. Tom and Ava recognised him as Logan Cameron, who looked like Percy Jackson from _Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief_ 2010 film, and a friend of theirs.

Ava smiled. “Hey, Logan.”

“Hey,” Tom said. “Has something happened to Carol?”

“She may be in danger,” Logan said. “I saw black smoke talking to someone. They were going to use her to get you, but luckily she got away.”

“Then where is she?”

“I’ll help you look for her. I had a run in with the black smoke and it wasn’t great.”

“Black smoke? You mean, Zgtozata?”

“Yeah.”

After saying goodbye to the man, Ava, Tom, and Logan ran off. The man turned to the wolf sitting beside him and petted it like how you would pet a dog.

*** 

Carol was with Will at Village Lane School, looking for Natalie Williams, who was Jasmine’s sister. They were standing in the corridor.

“Why don’t we split up?” asked Will.

 “Good idea,” agreed Carol.

Will entered one classroom. Carol in another. Through one of the classroom windows, Carol saw a man passing and he had a gun. She had to warn Will. She ran into the classroom Will was in. “Will, look out!”

The bullet found its mark.

Will fell to the ground and morphed into Duke as green fluid bubbled through the bullet wound. Then, as Carol watched, he dissolved into green fluid bubbling and fizzing as it turned into gas.

Ava and Catherine will be heartbroken at the fact that Duke will never come home. I have to go and break the news to them. She went to their house in the guise of a police officer.

“Duke’s not coming home,” Carol said. “He’s dead.”

“How do you know?” Catherine asked.

“He was shot. In the back of the neck.”

“How did he die?” Ava enquired.

“He fell… and dissolved into green blood.”

Tears welled in Catherine’s eyes.

Ava sniffled. “Who killed him?”

“BOTNS,” said Carol. She turned around and left.

Ava stood up. “I’m going to head to Hen and Fox.”

When Ava went to the pub, there were many people about. She went over the bar and asked the bartender for a can of Diet Coke.

The bartender, Landon, handed the can. “Are you ok?”

“I’m ok, thank you,” Ava said. She got out her phone and dialled Tom’s number but reached his answerphone.

“Hello, this is Tom Owens. Leave a message please,” said Tom’s voice on the machine.

There was a beep.

“Hey, Tom, it’s me,” said Ava. “I need to talk to you. I’m going to be staying at Rat and Cat. Now, by the time you reach me, I should have some very important information for you regarding this case.”

She hung up. A few seats down, watching her, was the man who a member of a gangster picked a fight with. He looked identical to Duke.

Later, at 11:21pm, there came a knock on the door. Ava saw it was Tom, yet when she answered her phone, it was also Tom!

Ava acted fast. “Lie on the bed, on your back.”

“Ok.” Tom obeyed. Then he got off the bed and walked up to her. “Where is he?”

Ava bolted to the door but Tom grabbed her by the t-shirt collar and lifted her above his head against the wall with one hand. Something wasn’t right. Tom didn’t have super strength. “That was him on the phone, wasn't it? Tell me where he is.”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Ava said.

He threw her up and she broke through a glass table. She looked up at him. He looked down at her and his face morphed to that of his true identity, the Alien Bounty Hunter.

Of course! That’s what ABH also stands for, other than Alina’s full name – Alina Belle Hunter. Ava knew that she had Duke’s powers.

***       

No lights shone in the room. Everything was shrouded in darkness. Ava had the feeling that she wasn’t back in her room.

Lights came on. Ava checked her surroundings. She looked down and saw she was tied to a chair.

A man approached from the shadows. Then another. And another. And another, and two more.

There is more than one, Ava thought. Duke was not the only bounty hunter. I need to know why I am here. She looked at each one in turn. They were identical in both appearance and attire.

The bounty hunter nearest to her, the sixth one, had an expression of hmm, what to do. Ava recognised him as the man from the fortress. He looked different in the attire that matched the others. Ava realised she had the rare ability to differentiate between the bounty hunters. “I’ll find a way to bring him back. I promise.”

All the bounty hunters nodded slightly.


End file.
